The transition to clean energy, with wind energy as a key driver, is central to Europe’s and the world’s climate ambitions. Yet this transition hinges not just on the adoption of wind turbines, but also on the supply of the raw materials they contain. Critical raw materials (CRMs), such as rare earth elements (in permanent magnets), lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese, are essential components in turbines, EV batteries, grid infrastructure, and other green technologies.

To address this vulnerability, the European Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) entered into force in May 2024. It mandates that by 2030, the EU must build resilient, diversified, and circular supply chains for critical and strategic raw materials. The US Department of Energy has enacted similar legislation.

As these regulatory pressures and supply chain uncertainties increase, understanding the material composition of wind farm assets has become increasingly vital. In this context, we are proud to launch the Critical Raw Materials feature in ReWind.

Critical Raw Materials Analysis

We have introduced a new model to our platform that provides a detailed breakdown of critical raw materials (CRMs) contained within individual turbines and aggregated across entire wind-farm assets.

• For each turbine, ReWind estimates the quantity of CRMs used, including rare-earth elements for permanent magnets (e.g., neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, terbium), as well as copper, cobalt, nickel, and lithium where relevant.

• For wind farms, ReWind aggregates these quantities to show the complete raw material footprint for the entire asset, including cables, substations, and other infrastructure.

• This breakdown appears as a dedicated analysis in every project and is included as a section in all reports.

The CRM feature uses a combination of proprietary and publicly sourced data, along with our material calculation algorithms, to provide a consistent and transparent estimate for each asset.

How to Access & Use It

• The CRM analysis is included in all projects by default.

• All new PDF reports automatically include a Critical Raw Materials section, which you can show or hide as needed.

• Results are displayed as summary tables with an explanation of our methodology.

Looking Ahead

We consider this release a significant step in enhancing our material transparency capabilities. In the upcoming quarters, we intend to broaden our lifecycle and circularity insights with:

• Scenario decommissioning emissions modelling

• Scrap metal value tracking

We hope this new capability helps you build a cleaner energy infrastructure that is not only efficient but also resilient and future-proof. If you’d like a walkthrough or help generating a CRM breakdown for your existing assets, let us know!

Team ReWind